Hi all,

 

I’m just another guy waiting for early access to begin, I and some friends are discussing what faction we should roll, and I’m wondering if any of you can share your own impressions of the current situation. We are most likely rolling on a PvP server, and me myself are mostly drawn to PvP in all games.

 

The things I’m wondering about are as follows:

• Is there a clear and noticeable in-balance between the factions, and who’s in the lead?

• Is there any noticeable difference in the type of players and resulting “culture” that each faction draws for itself?

• What is your personal recommendation for faction choice if story, esthetics, light/dark-side and such aspects all are secondary to a great PvP experience with balanced population, mature competition, and minimal downtime?

 

Simply, if PvP “fun” goes before RPG preferences, where should we go?

 

If you search the net or look at forums and http://swtorprogress.com, I get the impression that Empire are in majority, and I personally feel that being on the minority side is usually better, especially when it comes to queued PvP instances. Open-world PvP seems to be, in most games, the most fun if essentially balanced, more fun for the underdog if the in-balance is small, and not fun for anyone but less frustrating for the majority side if the imbalance is significant. But does this hold true for SWTOR?

 

Also, I have never been a WoW player, EVE-Online, Guild Wars and Warhammer Online where my games. But if we take WoW as an example, my impressions from vanilla-WoW friends where that their where a tangible and really noticeable difference in what kind of players each faction got. Horde seemed to be (or so if heard from friends, read on forums, and glimpsed in articles) the side with a higher age average (which doesn’t secure but heightens the odds for more “maturity”) and also the side with a more developed PvP community and PvP culture. Are any such similarities visible this early in SWTOR, and how are they then playing out?

 

Disclaimer: Don’t take my WoW parallel as a point for discussion or provocation, I just used a reference to my impression of WoW as a bystander to get my point across that I’m interested and curious about any perceived differences between Empire and Republic when it comes to the drawn playerbase in SWTOR So please avoid any WoW vs. SWTOR flamewars.

 

And I know my English is bad, sorry, it’s not my first language, and all trolls, please leave me be, I’m a friendly guy looking for some information!

 

Thanks all!

Being interested in these questions myself, I have been looking into this for a month or so now. It is difficult to be sure of anything as there is no concrete info. The information i've gathered is qualitative and should not be taken as hard facts. I gathered it mostly from the forums, polls, and from a few in game chats i had during the beta.

 

First and most important, it does appear the the empire will outnumber the republic by a pretty significant margin. This was mostly determined by the fact that everyone i know wants to go imperial and that the polls often showed twice as many people going for the imperial classes relative to the republic mirrors.

 

The hardcore gamers and pvpers seem to be favoring the imperials as well. Probably for much the same reason that Horde was favored by hardcore gamers in WoW. I, being pretty hardcore gamer myself, will be going republic because i prefer being the underdog.

 

As for maturity, republic probably has this one. Discussions with Gamestop employees have led to the conclusion from people pre-ordering in store that most people claiming they will be going imperial are younger while more older people will be going Republic. That being said, older people have lives, jobs, and other responsibilities making them more likely to be casual players.

 

Take from all of that what you will.

I don't know if this necessarily reflects maturity, but I have notice very little trolling or just bad mouthing in general, in any chat channel on my server (The Swiftsure - Empire side). In fact, if anything, the conversations going on are pleasant and helpful. It's a real change from WoW trade chat.

 

I haven't really experienced PvP yet, as I was only able to hit level 10 last night. But, the community is great and I'm looking forward to trying it out.

Edited December 15, 2011 by Wapner

Thanks for the answers!

 

It seams more and more that rebuplic is the way to go, at least if you want more competition and shorter ques

 

But nice to hear that the level overall is high when it comes to social interaction.

 

I see some claims that the "kiddy WoW crowd" (wich i don't know if it exist really, or how bad it is if it does ) is being drawn in to the Sith side beacuse "evil is cool". Is their any merit to this? Both that a annoying kiddy crowed exisit and that they are pooling on one side?

 

(I know I know, all this is speculation, but it fills the time until I get my invite)

How can anyone know the answer to this? The game has been open two days, and not even all servers are up. Its a useless question until at least a month after release.

Thanks for the answers!

 

It seams more and more that rebuplic is the way to go, at least if you want more competition and shorter ques

 

But nice to hear that the level overall is high when it comes to social interaction.

 

I see some claims that the "kiddy WoW crowd" (wich i don't know if it exist really, or how bad it is if it does ) is being drawn in to the Sith side beacuse "evil is cool". Is their any merit to this? Both that a annoying kiddy crowed exisit and that they are pooling on one side?

 

(I know I know, all this is speculation, but it fills the time until I get my invite)

 

I would say that it may be true. But how many "kiddies" are drawn to the Republic so they can be "Luke," "Luhk," "Han" or "Hawn"? I think "the kiddies will be playing X faction" is more of a justification people use for their faction of choice, rather than a statement based in any sort of reality.

 

I'm a fully functional adult with a full-time job and responsibilities outside of gaming -- I'm drawn to the Empire simply because I like the playstyle and gameplay flavor of the classes. For example: For me the Bounty Hunter just feels a lot more fun than the Trooper, even though they are essentially identical (the differences are purely aesthetic).

Edited December 15, 2011 by Wapner

its a mmo.. maturity doesnt factor in any where.

Obnoxiousness has been (relatively) minimal in chat so far. I've been playing Republic on Vornskr (or whatever it is) and chat while occasionally inane has been reasonably civil and helpful when I've payed attention.

 

That said I often tune out the chat window when I'm playing, so Godzilla could be attacking one zone over and I might not notice.